Summer salad recipes: Israeli salad recipe with fresh lemon-mint dressing

Israeli salad with lemon-mint dressing

When Sarah was in Israel with Engage-Israel, two years ago, this was one of the summer salad recipes served at every meal. Israel has an abundance of fresh vegetables, olives, and fruit. And summer salads were even served at breakfast. Cucumbers, peppers, onions, and tomatoes are at their peak of ripeness in July and so this particular salad was served a lot. Try this with the fresh lemon and mint dressing. I’m sure you’ll make it again and again.  

If your growing zone is too warm for lettuce right now, try this make ahead summer salad recipe instead. You might even find yourself grabbing a bowl of Israeli salad for breakfast, like I did this morning.

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Israeli salad recipe

Ingredients:

Israeli Salad vegetables:

2 tomatoes

1 english cucumber, (don’t peel)

1 med red onion

1 orange or red pepper, deseeded

Lemon Mint Dressing:

Juice and zest from 1 organic lemon

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

2 tbsp. of white balsamic vinegar

2 tbsp. olive oil

Leaves from 5 sprigs of fresh mint

Directions:

Finely chop tomatoes, cucumber, onion, and pepper into cubes no bigger than ¼ inch. Mix together in a bowl.

Lemon Mint Dressing

To make the lemon mint dressing, zest and juice the lemon. Add the zest and juice into the bowl of a food processor or blender. Take the leaves from the sprigs of mint and chop finely. I find it helpful to place all the leaves on top of each other and then roll them under my hand while I chop them into fine ribbons. Add the mint leaves to the bowl of the food processor/blender. Add olive oil, vinegar, and mustard. Turn on food processor/blender and process until the dressing is thick and well blended. You should see tiny fragments of mint leaves but no large pieces.

Pour the prepared dressing over the salad. Mix well. Serve immediately.

I just made another bowl of this easy summer salad recipe, and served it in a pita with tzatziki sauce, and hummus today for lunch. It was a super quick, light lunch. A good choice when the hungry gardener comes in and asks “what’s for lunch.” He can even help me make it.  

More Summer Salad Recipes:

Summer Salads on the SchneiderPeeps

Back to you:

What’s your favorite summer salad recipe? The one that you go to over and over again? I’d love to expand my summer salad repertoire.  Leave a comment.